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Holding out for a 2024 farm bill

The president of Missouri Farm Bureau says he’s still optimistic a new farm bill can be completed in 2024.

“Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”

Garrett Hawkins says the rural economy isn’t great right now and Congress should step up in a big way.

“We’re at the end of the August recess and for every member of Congress we’ve interacted with this month, we’ve reminded them of the need of a farm bill.”

He says the full U.S. House could vote on a farm bill in the next few weeks, but it takes more than one chamber of Congress to get a farm bill across the finish line.

“We need the Senate to act. It’s frustrating that it seems like there hasn’t been a lot of conversation. Mind you, they have a lot of things going on. If you look at the appropriations schedule, you see the House has passed 5 spending bills and Senate has brought to the floor zero so far. We know the list is long, but it’s not our fault.”

Brownfield interviewed Hawkins at the Missouri Farm Bureau’s Commodity Conference.